Creating the European Goddesses Oracle Deck - The Story so far

Three years into the journey of independently creating an oracle deck - How it started out, what it has evolved into, and what is next

It’s been three years since I started out on creating my goddesses oracle deck.

This article talks about the evolution of the deck, the struggles, and the current state of this long term-project.

How it started out

It all started in 2020, when I created my first goddess illustration, and shared it on my Instagram.

Back then, I’d have never imagined how many more goddess-illustrations I would create in the years to come, and that I would eventually work on putting them together in a deck.

Over time, I illustrated goddesses from many different cultures. I got requests from my audience to create a goddesses-deck on a regular basis, so I eventually decided to commit to this project.

Creating an oracle deck is hard. It takes time, dedication, and effort. There are times, when I doubt myself and all of the work I am putting into this.

I know that I could make this much easier for myself. I know, that I could just take all of the goddess illustrations I ever created, throw them together in a deck with some buzzwords printed on the cards, and call it a day. But that is not the deck that I want to make. I want to create a deck, I am truly proud of.

Creating my illustrations takes a lot of time, and writing the guidebook for my deck takes even longer. In May 2023, I finished the third draft of the book, and finally the deck is shaping up to the product I want it to be.

The concept of the deck

The number of goddesses and female spirits included in the deck is limited to 40. Since I am of European heritage, I decided to exclude goddesses from other cultures, I had already illustrated. I felt this was a necessary decision to really do the goddesses, who are included in the deck, justice.

Even though the deck is composed solely of European goddesses and spirits, this does by no means imply that one has to be of European descent to use it. Diversity is one of paganism's strong suits, and it is my sincere belief that everyone who feels called to a deity or spirit can connect with them in their unique way – regardless of gender, ethnicity, or social background.

Next, I had to find a way to organize the goddesses in the deck. After a lot of trial and error, I decided to group them into archetypes. There are eight unique archetypes in the deck now.

This organization system will be useful, if the reader plans on using the deck for divination purposes. Another way to use the deck is as a devotional tool to establish a connection with different goddesses.

The guidebook

Every goddess has her own chapter in the guidebook. This is what a chapter currently looks like:

One page will hold a summary of what information is known about the goddess from historical sources and scholarly works.

The next page contains the divination approach. It includes a personal message for the reader from each goddess, which corresponds with her archetype.

On the final page, three ideas on how to connect with the goddess are introduced. They include inspiration for ritual, offerings, or other activities. Those ideas will be anchored in scholarly sources, if possible.

One of the major issues, I encountered while writing the book, was the scarcity of reliable sources. The internet is an amazing resource but it holds a lot of information, especially about deities, that is presented as historic facts, when it's actually personal gnosis.

There is nothing wrong with sharing personal experiences with the divine. However, I don't want to spread other people's personal ideas about different goddesses in my book. Instead I want to give fact-based information, as far as this is possible for a topic like this, and thereby give the reader the chance to explore and build their own personal gnosis on the basis of that.

What comes next

As of right now, I have finished the third draft of the guidebook. It’s currently being proof-read, and I will do one last round of corrections as soon as I get the manuscript back.

I have finished about 80% of the illustrations and artworks needed for the design of the final product.

I am now focusing on finding the perfect printing partner to bring the product to life. I will share more about this process in coming articles.

The question I get asked the most is, when does the oracle deck come out. And even though, I would love to answer this question, I simply don't know.

It’s scary to work on a project like this for such a long time. Especially in the world that we live in, where everything is so fast-paced, and new oracle decks appear on the market every other day.

I try to remind myself that good things take time. My sincere hope is to create a product that is really worth people's time and money, and that will truly enrich their lives.

I will be posting regular updates about the process of the deck in the future.

If you want to support my work, you can follow me on Instagram, visit my YouTube-channel or become a Patron.